Billboard carvings

Brilliant use of old billboard posters! The article and work raises the point that over time, old posters aren't ever removed, just papered over... What a waste! Here, a carving makes use of this fact, and uses the layering to create a further work of art.

http://1800recycling.com/2011/01/urban-bas-relief-recycle-billboard-posters/

RSVP: a negative response

Initial thoughts on this took me to the way in which the public react negatively when confronted with an invitation to respond.

We are often asked - through flyers, posters, or people we pass by - to attend things, sign up to things etc. Often we're not at all interested. Here are a couple of ways in which we react negatively to an invitation.

In the case of flyers, most end up here:

In the case of posters, a visible reaction is less common, but could result in this:

My idea proposes that there are a number of ways in which we can "RSVP" negatively which are more than just ignoring the invitation. Sometimes the invitation to one thing encourages us to feel invited to another, out of a reaction to something we may not agree with.

Ways in which this could be resolved in a visual situation:

1. Through looking at invites/flyers which are designed to be binned. People are going to bin them anyway, why not help them out?
2. The de-facing of posters. This could lead to a number of visual responses: using humour, violence, shock tactics etc., to actively respond negatively to a particular campaign.
3. Using bins, or anti-RSVP methods to bring about a positive outcome. How about people voting for an issue by placing the promotional flyer in a particular bin?

PAWPRINTS

All work/development can be found on www.phil-pawprints.blogspot.com

Research/ideas can be found on this blog, or on Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/philwynne/

Guardian advert

Thought this was brilliant - cheers to Benjy for showing me this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDGrfhJH1P4

Website design

I posted some images of the new BBC Sport website recently, and I just found this blog on how the we site was designed, road-tested etc. I thought it was a useful insight into a process which often isn't made apparent in light of a finished product.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/02/bbc_sport_design_live.html

Promoting handwriting as an alternative to typing/texting

My campaign/brand/initiative will primarily focus on the way in which handwriting allows a much more personalised approach to words than the clinical world of type and text. Everyone has a different handwriting style, and this is to be embraced.

When writing something by hand, a personality comes through on the page – a personality that can't be achieved by using Baskerville, say. The brand will reinforce this idea, and go on to say that it is only by us embracing our own handwriting styles that we can truly capture the meaning of our words. That is, by penning our thoughts in our own unique hand, we have a much more personal connection with the letters, and can begin to take more ownership of the words which flow out of our minds, mouths, and fingers.

The target audience would most likely be those most influenced by the digital typography revolution, the young. It is in this demographic where handwriting is seen the least. The brand would therefore appeal to an audience more at ease with a Twitter feed than a hand-written shopping list, for example.

The overall aim of the brand is to encourage the audience to take up a nearby writing instrument, and see what they can create with it language-wise. It will spur viewers on to write more personally and to win back the meanings of the words they speak. These aims will be achieved by an engaging visual identity palette, which would showcase ways in which handwritten sentences can be more exciting and liberating than other methods.

Some practical ways in which this would be achieved would be by locating the initiative in an environment that the target audience is familiar with. Typed words would be reproduced by hand, and put out onto the internet via mediums such as Twitter (pictures of handwritten tweets could be posted), and references to popular culture could be made visible – all in a particular handwriting style.

Web Research

When considering how a visual identity palette could influence a set of webpages/microsites, the new-look BBC range of sites is a brilliant source of inspiration:

In particular, the new sport section has impressed me - a simple yet stylish design which both mirrors the style achieved on other areas of the BBC's webpages, and is totally individual (perhaps due to it's very yellow nature!).

As you can see, the home and weather pages feature many of the same design ideals - single colour blocks, with images partially cut into by text boxes.